


Of Caps, Gowns & Championship Rings

by olddarkmachine



Series: For the Love of Football [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Anal Sex, Graduation, Happy Birthday Keith!, M/M, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Smut, and keith is the loner loved by him, or better yet, shiro is the quarterback loved by everyone, that's essentially what this is for the football au, this could technically be a standalone but ngl you should read the others first, yall know that where are they now show?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 10:35:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16386281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olddarkmachine/pseuds/olddarkmachine
Summary: When he’d told Shiro he could have anything he wanted if he managed to get the higher GPA, he had thought he would have asked for literally anything else. Anything that didn’t involve the tacky black cape and even tackier square hat, and his own embarrassment as he walked across a stage in silence.If I win, you walk in your graduation ceremony.Shiro had said like it was simple, his stare turned soft by a melting fire that Keith was all too happy to burn in in any other circumstance.But why?He’d asked, shock making his tone sharper as he’d pulled away from Shiro’s grasp.I don’t have any family to watch me, so what’s the point?I’ll be your family,Shiro had replied easily, as he’d pulled him back in.And you’ll be mine.Shaking the memory from his head, Keith sighed heavily, reaching instead for the championship ring that made its home tucked against the middle of his chest, warmed by the heat of his skin and kept company by the steady beat of his heart.Ever since they’d named their terms, it had carried the weight of an entirely different kind of ring.





	Of Caps, Gowns & Championship Rings

**Author's Note:**

> I bet you guys had thought you’d seen the last of the football AU, huh?! Honestly, I thought I had too. But then I was hit with the bug to revisit this 'verse, and since Keith’s birthday-- and subsequently, the one year anniversary-- was coming up, I figured, why the hell not? 
> 
> So, you guys know that show? Where Are They Now? Consider this something like that :3 ~~only way less tragic, because god did some of those episodes get sad lo~~ l So, without further ado, here’s the actual end of the football AU. Happy One Year @ C&W and Happy Birthday, Keith!

_“You wanna make that a bet, Cherry Bomb?”_

_“I always love a bet, QB, especially when I know I’ll win.”_

_“And if you don’t?”_

_“You can have whatever you want. Though, I doubt I’ll have to worry about it.”_

_“You’re going to eat those words, babe.”_

***

Keith’s shoulders were set in some kind of aggravated defiance as he stared down at his bed and the offending piece of clothing that seemed to be the cause of all his current pain and suffering.

Sorry. Not his bed.

_Their_ bed.

Not that that really mattered. At this rate, he was going to kick Shiro out or move out himself just to prove a point.

That point being that even if Shiro could goad him into a horrible bet with those big, bright eyes of his, he still shouldn’t be allowed to have whatever he wants. It would be good for him, Keith told himself as he reached forward, dragging his fingers across the fabric and feeling the thin material.

_Don’t be a sore loser, baby_ , Shiro had laughed, pressing those words into his neck with a kiss as he looked over Keith’s shoulder and at his final GPA. His final GPA that was just .2 less than Shiro’s pristine 4.0.

His GPA that spelled his defeat, and therefore signed his life away to Shiro’s great and terrible whim. If he had known that the final for Slav’s class was going to be that much of a bitch, Keith wouldn’t have taken part in the bet at all

_You were supposed to be a dumb jock_ , Keith had grumbled as he’d immediately closed his laptop, biting on the edge of his own stubborn smile as Shiro pressed another rumbling laugh to the square of his jaw.

_But that’s what you love about me, Cherry Bomb_ , he’d said, voice full of affection in a way that had made Keith’s cheeks warm to a near uncomfortable heat before he’d turned in his seat to steal whatever words were left on the quarterback’s tongue. It was a dirty tactic, he knew, but all was fair in love and war and this was both, god dammit.

Problem was, it hadn’t worked.

_Nice try_ , Shiro had laughed again when he’d pulled away, his pinked lips arced upward into a sly smile and his eyes gone dark with want.

At least Keith could say he had tried.

He had failed, but he had tried, and that was what really mattered, right?

_Not really_ , he thought bitterly as he let his fingers slide down the slick black fabric as he pulled them away.

When he’d told Shiro he could have anything he wanted if he managed to get the higher GPA, he had thought he would have asked for literally anything else. Anything that didn’t involve the tacky black cape and even tackier square hat, and his own embarrassment as he walked across a stage in silence.

_If I win, you walk in your graduation ceremony_.

Shiro had said like it was simple, his stare turned soft by a melting fire that Keith was all too happy to burn in in any other circumstance.

_But why?_  He’d asked, shock making his tone sharper as he’d pulled away from Shiro’s grasp. _I don’t have any family to watch me, so what’s the point?_

_I’ll be your family_ , Shiro had replied easily, as he’d pulled him back in.  _And you’ll be mine._

Shaking the memory from his head, Keith sighed heavily, reaching instead for the championship ring that made its home tucked against the middle of his chest, warmed by the heat of his skin and kept company by the steady beat of his heart.

Ever since they’d named their terms, it had carried the weight of an entirely different kind of ring.

A weight that should have crushed him, leaving him a mangled, bloody mess. Or at least cracked a few of his ribs.

But that was just the worst of it all really.

Because what Keith had really felt was something a lot like happiness at the thought that maybe, just maybe, this thing really was going to be forever.

_Family_ , Shiro had said, in the very best sense of the word. The kind that was found. That was chosen. It was family that wasn’t born of blood ties and obligations, but that was built on the very foundations of something more.

Shiro wanted to stick around, and Keith wanted to do the same, and that very fact made poignant by this damned graduation ceremony made his heart feel entirely too large for his chest. 

So much so, that he was certain that he’d suffocate on it.

Honestly, his life would have been so much easier if he had won.

All he’d wanted was to tie Shiro to their bed and have his wicked, wicked way with him. It would have been a win-win really.

“What a wasted opportunity,” Keith muttered lowly as he dropped the ring, reveling in the dull thump of it against his sternum as he snatched up the black graduation gown. Tugging it over his shoulders and zipping it forcefully, he tried desperately not to think of the bright smile that he knew was waiting for him on the other side of the door, accompanied by the strays they’d picked up along the way.

_Friends, Keith. We call them friends._

His fingers itched for a cigarette for the first time since he’d quit the year before.

_Those things will kill you, you know_ , Shiro had said once.

_That sounded pretty ideal right about now_ , he thought as he rolled his eyes at the memory.

Grabbing the flimsy cap from his nightstand, he tucked it under his arm before walking around the bed and toward the closed door that had separated him from his doom. He wasn’t going to wear the damned thing until it was literally forced onto his head before entering the arena where his ceremony was taking place.

It was a small act of defiance, but it was his last and he was sticking by it.

Standing before the door, Keith dragged a steadying breath between his teeth as he rested his palm against the cool metal knob. This close, he could hear the steady thrum of excited voices. Biting down on the edge of his lips as they threatened to turn into something like a smile, Keith threw the door open to be met by bright cheers that made his veins fill with the sharp zing of excitement.

_This is all Slav’s fault_ , he thought, forgetting to even try and feel bitter about it.

***

“Have I told you how good you look in red?” Shiro’s voice was a growl blurred by a couple of Lance’s ill advised mystery punches as he handed Keith another whiskey before burying his face in the crook of his neck just above the crimson graduation sash. His own alcohol warmed pulse buzzed with the contact as he pushed closer to Shiro, turning his face enough to press a soft kiss to his temple.

“Almost everyday, QB,” Keith chuckled as Shiro blew a raspberry against his skin, sending a tickle down his throat and straight to his very core.

It was a burn, feathered at it’s edges, and impossibly soft.

_Love_ , Keith reminded himself, tucking his bright smile behind the red plastic. He had thought that over the course of a year and a half, the awe of it would stop catching him off guard. Keith had thought, that at some point, it at least would have tempered into something that didn’t make his heart race and his cheeks burn.

It should have left him in dismay that that did not seem to be the case.

Yet it hadn’t, and he even suspected it was worse now as he was sure his skin was painted a red somewhere between solo cup and engineering school crimson.

Bright laughter twisted around them as Shiro pulled away, his own flush set prettily against the stretch of his scar as his gaze danced with the light of the glowing star lights spanning the courtyard.

“Let me rephrase,” he said, reaching out and pinching the silky fabric of his sash between his thumb and forefinger. Rubbing it between the pads of his fingers, Shiro looked up through his lashes. “Have I told you that today?”

“Only about a hundred times,” Keith laughed, rolling his eyes for effect as he pulled Shiro’s hand away to occupy it with his own instead.

If anyone asked, each and every one of Shiro’s assurances about the garnet sash was why he’d gone along with wearing it to Lance’s party.

If they asked again, he would say he was wearing it because it meant free entry into, and he quotes, The Bitchingest Graduation Party.

And if they thought to ask one more time, maybe he’d admit that he was still wearing it because he liked the the weight that it added to his shoulders. 

The truth of it was, he hadn’t expected the feeling of excitement and pride that had overtaken him when he’d walked across the stage to collect his stand-in diploma.

Even more so, he hadn’t expected the way it had exploded within him, knocking his breath from him as he’d heard Shiro’s enthusiastic yells for him from the crowd.

What’s more, was he hadn’t expected the way that very pride had twisted around him, nearly choking him, as he’d watched Shiro at his own ceremony.

Something like hope and anticipation had made his veins go bright as he’d watched Shiro turn at the end of the stage, moving his tassel from one side to the other before miming a perfect touchdown throw.

Only he, and the two strangers he’d placed himself between, would ever know that maybe, just maybe, he shed a tear.

“Well let’s make it a hundred and one,” Shiro said, raising his solo cup toward him in toast before he tipped it back. Not waiting for him to emerge from its depths, Keith fisted his hand in the white sash around his neck and pulling him close. Spluttering into the cup, Keith smirked up at him as he watched the small rivulets of purple roll down his chin from where the mystery punch spilled over.

Pulling the red plastic away, Shiro looked down at him with his cheeks pinked and his eyes dark in a way that made Keith run warm.

“And what about you?” Keith asked, tone deadly as he licked a line across his bottom lip just to watch the way Shiro tracks its path. “Have I told you yet how great you look in white?”

The taste of punch was still bright and sweet on the tip of Shiro’s tongue as Keith pushed up on his toes, licking away his response with a quick swipe of his own across the back of his teeth. It earned him a low rumble, and a solid arm low across his back.

Smiling into it, he pressed closer if only for the sheer fact that he could.

“And on this very, hallowed ground, we see these two disgusting lovebirds making out in damn near the same spot I introduced them,” a mock commentator voice from the very pits of Hell said, pulling them apart as Keith rolled his eyes. He felt the thunder of laughter in Shiro’s chest as he looked over his shoulder toward Lance, who offered him a smile in the wake of his scowl with Allura pressed into his side.

At least she had the decency to try and hide her laughter by tucking it into Lance’s neck.

“Keith, remind me, what was it you said about my party that night?” The brunette continued, tapping his chin thoughtfully as he looked upwards in search of the answer, though something told Keith he knew damn well what he had said.

Setting his face into a carefully composed glare, he polished off the last of his whiskey, barely taking the time to swallow it down as he flicked the empty directly into Lance’s chest.

_Bullseye_ , he thought smugly as his friend gasped loudly, dropping his hand to his chest in over exaggerated scandal.

“I didn’t say—” Keith started before he was drowned out by an excited and loud  _ah-ha_.

“I remember now. You said to pour one out for what little life you had had since it had been snuffed it out.” Lance shook his head, sighing as he fixed his blue stare on him.

“That’s just hurtful, Keith.”

The responding laugh was Shiro’s as he pulled Keith against him, draping his arm around his shoulders in a mirror of the couple before them.

“Have we ever told you how much we appreciate you, Lance?” He said brightly before mouthing a hello to Allura. Raising her cup towards him, she winked before dipping behind it and pulling out from under Lance’s arm for a refill.

“Thank you, Shiro. See, that’s all I wanted,” Lance said as his smile stretched into a Cheshire grin made of wit and teeth and, Keith suspected, pure evil.

“Well, that, and the wedding invite that I’m still waiting for.”

Shiro’s own empty bounced off Lance’s chest deftly before he turned away with a cackle, waving a hand at them as he left to find his next victims.

Pulling away from Keith, the quarterback knelt to pick up their cups, stacking them together before tossing them carefully into one of the large trash bins off to the side of the courtyard.

There was a devilish look in his eyes when he returned, stopping just short of Keith so he could look him up and down.

“Want to get out of here, Cherry Bomb?” He asked, sucking his lip between his teeth and fixing Keith with an earnest gaze as if he thought he could possibly say no.

As if he could ever want to say no.

By way of answer, Keith closed the distance between them, pulling Shiro into him before he crashed into him with all the grace of a fallen comet. This kiss is dirty, filled with too much teeth and hot breath.

It’s much more than it really needed to be for a party, but Keith’s veins buzzed with whiskey and something a bit headier.

_Love_ , he thought happily again as he hummed, enjoying the way it felt to have Shiro pressed against him in the courtyard for all their friends to see, and the bite of the ring against his chest where it was trapped between them.

Pulling away only when his vision danced with bright stars, Keith let his hands slide down from Shiro’s neck, drawing hot lines down his chest and toward the top of his jeans.

His smile twisted as he felt the way his muscles fluttered beneath his touch where his fingers paused before he pulled them away and grabbed Shiro’s hand.

Turning over his shoulder, he pulled the quarterback along, throwing his answer over his shoulder with a wink.

“God, yes.”

***

The sound of their apartment door slamming punctuated the quiet, dark apartment as they blindly pushed through it, unwilling to pull apart as they clumsily made their way through it.

Pain erupted in Keith’s hip as it caught the edge of their dining table, forcing a gasp from his lips as he pulled away. His look was betrayed as he turned to look down at the wooden frame, earning a chuckle from Shiro as he continued his onslaught across his jaw and down his throat.

“Sorry, baby,” he whispered into his pulse as he guided Keith back towards their room.

“You’ll just have to make it up to me,” Keith purred, the table’s treachery forgotten in a haze of alcohol and Shiro’s mouth as he arched his neck back for him.

There was a pause as Shiro pulled a hand away long enough to push open their bedroom door before he breathed,  “I’d love to.”

World tilting on its axis, Keith laughed brightly as he found himself pushed onto their bed, his body bouncing slightly as the springs groaned beneath his weight. Shiro’s eyes were blackened by his blown pupils as he admired him for just a moment before he turned toward their dresser to rummage through their collection of lube.

_We don’t need so many options, Cherry Bomb_ , he’d once said when they’d lined them up one day out of curiosity.

Keith smiled as he pushed himself up further on the bed, watching Shiro regard the bottles as he remembered that that had been the last time he’d ever protested against them.

Vision comfortably hazy, he kept his gaze on the quarterback, lazily dragging his fingers across his stomach where his shirt had hiked up as he traced the line of Shiro’s shoulders through the snug fit of his shirt. Even now, he still found himself growing breathless as he tracked the broad strokes that made up the quarterback, each one coming together to create his favorite work of art.

But that little piece of poetry, might just be the alcohol talking.

A roll of anticipatory fire heated his gut all the same as Shiro turned back toward him, his smile a playful curve as he sauntered back towards where he lay.

“Did you miss me?” He chuckled as he settled over him, brushing his nose along his temple before chasing the brush with a kiss. Warmth blanketed Keith as he hummed, running his fingers beneath the hem of Shiro’s shirt and along the finely carved ridges of his abs.

“What I miss, is my view,” Keith growled, pushing against the fabric, rucking it up over his pecs as he let his gaze roam hungrily over Shiro’s skin. His laugh was a pleasant quake beneath his palm as the quarterback dropped his own hands behind him and pulled the shirt over his head with ease. The sight made Keith hum as he pulled his hands down over his stomach and toward the button of his jeans.

“And these?” He asked, shooting for innocent but landing somewhere between breathless and needy as his nails scratched against the dark trail that peeked over the denim. Shiro’s hips rocked lightly under the touch as he looked down the bride of his nose, watching closely as Keith sat up to press a burning kiss to the V of his hip.

“Consider them gone,” Shiro breathed, hand coming forward to card through Keith’s hair holding him close for just a second longer before pulling him away. A coolness settled over his skin as Shiro moved away, dropping his jeans and everything else with a little wiggle of his hips and a suggestive brow that made Keith drop his head back with laughter.

“Now what about you?” He asked, as he placed a knee between Keith’s legs and a hand on either side of his ribs. They burned through the fabric in a way that he wished left marks to match the one that Shiro had left on his heart.

“I think I need some help,” Keith said, arching his back under Shiro’s touch as he raised his arms above his head. A smile settled over his lips, twisting them up as Shiro dragged forest fires up his torso with the shirt before pulling it free. The heavy weight of the ring thumped against his sternum, lining up with the loud sound of his heart as Shiro discarded the offending clothing.

“Anything else I can help with?” Shiro asked, barely containing the sound of his mirth as he leant in to place a featherlight kiss just beside the ring. 

For a moment, Keith wondered if he could feel the way his heart still beat wildly for him.

For another, Keith wondered if it would ever stop.

And for one final moment, Keith wondered if he even wanted it to.

Humming low, he pulled his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling as if lost in thought.

“Nah, I think I’ll just stay in these pants for the rest of the night, thank you though,” Keith said breezily, biting the edge of his smile as he felt Shiro’s teeth nip at his collarbone.

“You tease,” he said in a hush, his words cooling across the bite before his hands made quick work of his jeans. The brush of his fingertips fanned the flames that were already roiling deep within him until they were all engulfing, razing everything that he was until there was nothing left for anyone else to take.

He was Shiro’s wholly, and he always would be.

The way he loved him, he wondered if somehow, he always had been.

With a deft pull, Shiro freed him of his jeans and dropped them in the same pile as his discarded shirt. The darkness that had consumed his eyes was softened only by laugh lines that crinkled their edges as he looked down at him. Keith watched the line of his tongue as he pulled it across his bottom lip. He wondered if this was the same look prey found themselves pinned beneath before they were devoured.

Of course, the only difference was, he was more than ready to be consumed.

The world shifted once more, startling a noise from within his chest as he found himself pulled forward until he was settled over the football player. Smiling up at him, Shiro settled a hand on either of his hips as he gently rolled his hips upwards in a motion that just barely brushed them together.

It was still enough to make him groan something obscene as he jolted against Shiro’s hold in search of more friction. The sudden movement made the chain around his neck jump, slamming the ring back against his skin in a way that he was certain would bruise.

Which, only seemed fitting if only because he knew that the purple mark would bruise just above his heart.

Reminded of its presence, Keith reached behind him, finding the clasp of the chain and fiddled with it until he felt Shiro pull gently on his arm.

“Leave that,” Shiro’s tone was rough, commanding even, as he brushed a careful finger over the body warmed metal before he looked up through his bangs. 

“I like it on you.”

A beat passed as he wrapped the silvered chain around his fingers, admiring the ring as he hadn’t seen it every day since he’d won it and placed it around Keith’s neck.

As if he didn’t have a matching one sitting on his dresser from their second championship win.

Keith couldn’t help by watch as Shiro’s stare etched thoughtful lines in the metal, as if he was carving it into something new before he flashed his gaze up towards him with bright decision in his eyes that made his bones ache with its brilliance. It worked its way straight into his core until he found himself pulling forward, crashing their mouths together in something more like a bite as he swallowed that decision down before it could leave Shiro’s lips.

The kiss was molten. 

Achingly slow and burning twice as hot, Keith got lost in it as they moved together, pushing and pulling like ocean tides. It eased over his skin until he was certain he’d drown in the flames.

Pulling away with a gasp, he looked down at Shiro. With his eyes full of stars and plush mouth pinked, he looked like an impossible dream.

A dream that was all his.

“You okay up there, Cherry Bomb?” Shiro’s voice was husked and used, already cracking with the same smoke that filled Keith’s lungs. It pulled him back down to Earth long enough for a dash of red at the edge of his vision to catch his attention. Reaching out to the crimson sash that Shiro had thrown haphazardly to the side, Keith leaned in low, brushing his lips just beside his ear as he moved Shiro’s hands between them.

“Just peachy, QB,” he breathed, blindly tying a loose knot around Shiro’s wrists with the sash. Pulling away, he looked down at his handiwork, and the hungry look it had earned him. With a soft push, he raised Shiro’s arms above his head and against their headboard.

A small quirk of his lips made his smile triumphant as he looked down at the quarterback.

Turned out he hadn’t needed to win the bet after all.

“Be a good boy and keep these here?” Keith hummed, dragging his fingers down the length of Shiro’s arm. Shuddering beneath the touch, he preened as he watched his lids flutter as a deep rumble vibrated beneath him.

“Yes, sir,” Shiro said lowly, as Keith reached for the bottle of lube that had been dropped beside them. Skin prickling beneath Shiro’s stare, he coated his fingers with an exaggerated flourish before dropping the bottle on his nightstand. Leaning in, Keith ran teasing fingers over Shiro’s nipples as he circled his own entrance with his slicked fingers.

Their moans melted together as he entered himself, his hips rolling involuntarily and brushing them together once more.

“Keith,” his name was laced with a breath as he started to work himself open in earnest, letting his hips grind against his hand as he continued to tease Shiro.

Rumbling low in question, he traced the track of Shiro’s pulse with short nips and languid kisses as he added another finger, ignoring the way his own gasp sounded too loud pressed into the nook of his throat.

“Let me see you,” Shiro’s voice was a shade off of a plea as he met Keith’s rolling motions with a thrust of his own. Smiling against his skin, Keith tried to swallowing down the stars that were popping and bursting through him.

“But I thought you liked the way I sound,” he said, curling his fingers in a futile attempt to catch the spot he so desperately wanted to reach.

“Like the way you look better.” Shiro’s pout was audible as Keith chuckled, placing a chaste kiss under Shiro’s jaw as he added a third finger.

“You’re so cheesy, Takashi,” Keith purred as he pulled back, cheeks burning and breath catching as the shift pressed his fingers deeper. The usual polished silver of Shiro’s stare turned hazy with the sound as he caught the way Keith’s mouth moved around his moan.

“But you love me anyway,” he said simply, stating the fact like there was nothing else to it. And there really wasn’t, because it was his own great truth.

A starburst was beating a steady pulse in his chest as he pulled his fingers out, gasping at the loss as his stomach quivered with the friction of it. It all laid too heavy against him as he eyed Shiro, holding his gaze long enough for the heat of the room to blister before he reach out toward his nightstand once more.

Bypassing the small plastic bottle, his fingers gripped the edges of the graduation cap he’d left there earlier, trying to push down his shit eating grin as he perched it on top of his head, puffing out his chest.

“So what do you think?” He asked, easing the heaviness of the room as he turned this way and that. “Do I make the stupid hat look good?”

Shiro’s laughter made him bounce as it filled the room, cascading around them as he shifted beneath Keith until he was sitting up fully. Dropping his tied hands over Keith’s head, he settled his palms behind his neck, pulling them chest-to-chest as he bumped the brim of the cap up so they could be eye level.

The ring pressed harshly into his skin, its edges cutting matching circles into both of their skins.

“And I’m the cheesy one?” His voice wobbled with his dying mirth as Keith shrugged against him.

“Couldn’t let you go down on that ship alone, babe,” Keith volleyed. His vision was filled with starlight and onyx as Shiro rolled his eyes upwards before pressing in for another kiss. This one was sweeter, edged with the feathery softness of teasing that their relationship had been built upon.

He knew it was probably a dumb sentiment, and for every one of their heated moments, Keith had to confess that these were his favorite.

These moments were the ones that felt real.

The ones that felt a bit like forever.

“That’s not being very good, you know,” Keith said after pulling away, turning his head toward the forearm pressed over his shoulder. Brushing the words against Shiro’s skin, he reached behind him to loosen the sash.

“So now you have two things to make up to me.”

Sliding his hands over the crest of his shoulders and down Keith’s chest, Shiro watched him carefully as they followed an invisible path across his body and down to his thighs. Fingers gripping into the muscle, he rubbed soft circles into his skin with his thumbs before he finally spoke.

“Guess I better get on that.”

The air left his lungs as, in one swift motion, Shiro flipped them. Pressing his back into the pillow top of their mattress, he trapped the shocked sound between them as he licked the back of his teeth.

Barely aware of the hat as it fell to the side, Keith anchored Shiro to him as he wrapped his arms around his neck and legs around his waist.

“Hey,” he breathed when Shiro pulled away just enough to brush their noses together, the anticipation building between them like a newly born star. Mixed with the heady buzz of alcohol still tickling his veins, it was a deadly combination as he felt Shiro lining himself up.

“Hey, baby,” the quarterback brushed against his lips as he pushed forward slowly, working his way in at an agonizingly slow pace. Inch-by-inch, he pressed in until he bottomed out, filling him in such a way that Keith could feel it from the base of his spine to the top of his throat.

It ached in the best way as he cut his nails into the meat of his shoulders in an attempt to somehow bring Shiro closer.

Each one of his slow movements punched another achingly breathy sound from his chest as he felt every push and pull that made that star burn brighter. Basking in its light, it burnt itself into his vision, leaving him blinded as it swelled until he couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t think, for that matter, as he brain spiraled around a simple phrase that he repeated over and over like a mantra as Shiro moved in him.

“I love you,” he breathed over and over, pressing the words into the dip of his collarbone and etching them into his skin with his nails.

“I love you,” Shiro replied back, pressing the words into his sternum with a palm against his ring.

Keith’s orgasm hit like a cataclysmic event, burning through him until all that was left was floating ash. Tipped over the edge, he reveled in the weightlessness of it as he felt Shiro’s thrusts grow erratic before he followed, his hand clutching at the chain as if it were a lifeline.

Quiet settled around them both as their breathes mingled in the small space between them before Shiro slowly pulled out and fell down beside him.

There was a brief moment of loss before Keith found himself pulled against Shiro’s chest until his head rest against his collar. Throwing a leg over his hip, he rumbled contentedly as he placed a soft kiss to Shiro’s chest, if only because he could.

Fingers found the ring again as the quarterback worried it between his fingers, still not saying anything at all as he returned the kiss to Keith’s crown.

The silence was comfortable as he drifted in it, lost in the ease of not having to say anything at all.

Minutes, or possibly even hours passed as he lay there, enjoying the feeling of Shiro’s careful rumination between them before the quarterback broke the quiet with a whisper.

“I can’t believe it’s over.” It was thoughtful, laced with sorrow as he pulled back, tracing over the Devils logo imprinted on the ring. The chain stretched between them as Keith also moved, pressing back just enough to watch as Shiro kept his gaze trained on the gold.

_I can’t believe it’s over._

The _it_  was left unsaid, though Keith knew exactly what the simple word encapsulated. Roughly two percent of college football players saw a pro field, a statistic that Shiro had insisted he’d come to terms with a long time ago.

It was why he’d decided to pursue his degree in sports medicine, and he was passionate about helping those players who did make it that far.

It was also why he’d worked so hard to earn Garrison University that second national championship title, making them the only school in 35 years to win it back-to-back. Keith tried to clamp down on his smile as he’d remembered the run Shiro had made to clinch the title. He had made sure to leave his mark, and he did so across 70 yards of bright green astroturf.

That didn’t mean that there wasn’t a small part of him that was going to miss the field. Keith had caught the hidden sadness that only he was privy to whenever anyone asked about what came next.

Maybe no one else saw it in the softened silver, but he did.

“Don’t worry,” Keith breathed, reaching a hand forward and running a thumb across the crest of Shiro’s cheek. “You’ll always be the quarterback of my heart.”

He’s barely able to get the words out through his smile before Shiro laughed, shaking them both with the hearty sound as he rolled his eyes.

Then he settled his gaze on Keith, clear and bright as he looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. It’s a single flashing moment of shining clarity before he found himself pulled back into Shiro’s chest.

The suddenness of it is almost startling, but he melted into it anyway. Nuzzling closer, it wasn’t until several breaths later that he realized Shiro was fiddling with the chain.

Heart leaping with a jolt of confusion, Keith pushed back, fixing him with a questioning look as the chain slipped from his neck and into Shiro’s open palm. Without looking at him, Shiro pulled the chain from the ring, lifting it between them as he twisted it this way and that and inspecting it carefully.

Thoughtfully, even.

“Shiro?” Keith asked, his name tasting overly sweet as he grabbed his left hand.

_Forever_ , his mind supplied as he watched Shiro look down at his hand and then back at him.

“You mean that?” He asked. The intensity of it made his mouth go dry as he nodded.

“In fewer, less cheesy words,” Keith’s words come out quiet, so much so that he would have been worried that Shiro didn’t hear them at all if it weren’t for the way his lips quirked. “But yeah.”

And it’s true. He can feel where it’s buried deep within his core, so far down that it must have been an ancient thing decided long ago. Even if he wanted to uproot that kind of love, he didn’t think he could. Keith wasn’t even sure he was supposed to feel that deeply after just over a year and a half, but he knew enough to know that it was true.

Smile cracking wide, Shiro pulled Keith’s hand towards his mouth and pressed a sweet kiss to the knuckle of his ring finger. It’s world stopping as he flicked his gaze up to look at him as he pulled away just enough to push the ring onto it.

The damn thing is too big, and flipped as soon as Shiro let it go, but it made Keith’s heart swell all the same.

“It’s a promise, then.” Each word found a space between Keith’s ribs as he tried to swallow down the bright taste of happiness that threatened to choke him as he admired the gold against his skin.

“Yeah,” he managed as the dim light from the moon outside glinted off the metal, carrying a brightness that, if he were trying to be poetic, he’d say it made him think about their future stretched before them.

Good thing he wasn’t.

_Forever_ , his mind whispered again as he tried to capture words long enough to say something else. Anything else that would mean so much more, but all he could manage was another quiet “yes.”

Seemingly the right answer, Shiro moved forward to kiss him again, twining their fingers as he made it something soft and sweet that he felt work itself all the way through him.

Pulling away, Keith snuggled closer into his chest, hiding his smile above Shiro’s heart as he tightened his arms around his shoulders to keep him there.

As if he even needed to try.

There’s a barely there pause before he feels Shiro start to shake with quiet laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Keith asked, peeking up through his bangs. A flush dusted his cheeks as he saw the happiness that played across his face as he shook his head, instead dipping down to place another chaste kiss to his hair.

“You told me to stop asking you things when dicks were involved,” he said into his crown. Keith’s own laughter took him as he remembered that night when his life had arguably changed for the best. Turning his face back into Shiro’s chest, he tickled his nose against his collarbone.

“You can ask me again when they aren’t,” Keith replied lowly, earning a contented growl.

“And with a ring that fits,” Shiro whispered into his hair, making his heart leap as he settling against the quarterback’s chest.  

“It’s a promise,” he echoed around a yawn as the feathery edges of sleep started to pull him under. Pressed safely in Shiro’s warmth and with his head against his chest, sleep took as he lost himself to the sound of his heart in his ear.

_Forever._

*****************


End file.
